A Dowry of Blood

If I had to name a book I recently read that literally took my breath away, this would have to be it. In all seriousness, very rarely have I come across writing so beautiful that actually made me put it down and think about it for a few minutes while picking my jaw off the floor. Often introduced as a retelling of Dracula and his lovers, A Dowry of Blood is a masterful gothic horror that can be easily read in a few hours.

Plot

The book is narrated through a series of flashbacks by Constanta, the first of Dracula's wives.

This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. I suppose both are a sort of gentle violence, putting down in ink what scorches the air when spoken aloud.

Her story starts in the middle of a village raid when she was a human dying a mortal death in the wrong place at the wrong time. With one foot through death's door, she would not have made it... until she was saved from the certain demise by an undying, mysterious stranger. When he turns her into a creature just like him, her life soon takes a turn for the worse.

What was once a mortal existence as a poor peasant soon turns into a life of luxury, debauchery, and sin. While coming to terms with the weight of her newfound immortality, Constanta soon falls victim to Stockholm Syndrome as she develops an almost religious, fanatic devotion to her husband.

The force of your love nearly drove me to my knees. I was no woman, I was merely a supplicant, a pilgrim who had stumbled across your dark altar and was doomed to worship at it forever.

While struggling with the raging restlessness and new cravings stirring in her, Constanta slowly starts to realize a horrible truth. Dracula has a habit of taking nice, shiny things for himself and discarding them once he's done playing. For Dracula, she is just another prized possession, another item to add to his collection. But she's too far enraptured in his spell to recognize how warped and twisted his idea of love really is and how toxic it has made their relationship.

Constanta is not Dracula's only lover, but in fact, the first of many. While her husband goes on to take additional paramours, she starts to feel a kinship with them instead of actual jealousy. They soon form complex interpersonal relationships, not just with Dracula - but also with each other. Brought together by their shared experience and trauma of being seduced, turned into vampires, and then discarded by him, they soon start realizing the truth of their situation.

A Dowry of Blood is more character driven than plot driven. The tension builds slowly and deliberately, and Gibson takes her time to bring it to a chilling conclusion that does its characters justice.

Characters

Constanta

It's hard not to sympathize with Constanta as she gives a first-hand account of the life and the atrocities she has experienced since the day Dracula first lay eyes on her. Despite her tragic story, she refuses to let it harden and twist her into something unrecognizable. Instead, she takes her pain and uses it to endure and empower herself and others. The other lovers Dracula takes on are vivid and nuanced in their own right, and it was wonderful to watch the different relationships Constante forms with them.

Dracula

Dracula upholds his reputation of being a terrifying character. His dark, controlling presence is felt all the time, even off the page.

You made it into an art form, this quiet sort of violence.

Dracula is the single most terrifying element in this book - the very personification of an intelligent predator, a sentient beast. Charismatic and manipulative at the same time, he is a figure torn between his nature to take care of his possessions and preying on the vulnerabilities of others.

Worldbuilding

Gibson succeeds in crafting a gothic, eerie backdrop that is sufficiently moody. The characters in the book move from country to country across the world, and it was fascinating to watch how some of the cities were described as if they were living entities that had moods of their own. I would have loved for it to go deeper into vampire lore or explore more of their culture - this would have been amazing.

Writing Style

The prose in this book is exquisite.

Beautiful, lush, and evocative, the words Gibson chooses to craft her story will stay with you long after you're done reading. It is heartbreaking to read how way Dracula slowly exerts his dominating, insidious influence on his lovers. Masterfully written, the story explores the themes of love, betrayal, and revenge through the use of its elaborate and captivating writing style.

You seemed to me a fire burning in the woods. I was drawn in by your enticing, smoky darkness, a darkness that still stirs memories of safety, of autumn, of home. I touched you the way I would touch any other man, trying to make my eager presence known and inscribe some sense of intimacy between us. But it was like grasping at a flame. I never penetrated to the burning heart of you, only came away with empty, scorched fingers.

A Dowry of Blood has, forever, raised my standards of what a paragon of poetic writing looks like. As a connoisseur of the more ornate, flowery language typically associated with fantasy, I have never read a more beautiful book that made me fall in love with it so instantly.

In Conclusion

Although I would have enjoyed it a bit more if it were longer and had some better worldbuilding, this book is more character-driven and focuses on that aspect for most of the part.

This story was an unexpected favorite. I'm normally hesitant of the vampire trope, just because of how overused it is... however, this book executes it flawlessly. Exploring the ideas of power and the struggle for survival against a gothic backdrop, A Dowry of Blood makes for an excellent, well-crafted, and evocative read.

Although this story reads as a standalone, S.T. Gibson also published a small sequel to it called An Encore of Roses. Touted as a modern-day epilogue, it is a beautiful short story that takes place sometime after the ending of A Dowry of Blood, providing closure for a few of the main characters. An Encore of Roses is published on S. T. Gibson's Substack here and is free to read for all!